Not There Yet: The Ten-Year Post I Didn’t Write

Last Tuesday was the ten-year anniversary of when my youngest son “graduated to heaven,” as my aunt called it in a bereavement text. I’d intended to write some deep, poignant, and inspirational essay about the joys I’ve found while healing along this grief journey since then, but honestly… I’m not in that place today. (There’s a reason this post is going up a day late.) And I wasn’t in that place last week, either. And who knows if I’ll ever be in that place?

A few months ago, I’d also had the idea to compile into a memoir and expand on the many essays I wrote about grief and loss and healing since Levi passed. But, again, I’m not in that place. I started on it, and it was very heavy work. (Not surprisingly.) Maybe in another five years. Or ten. Or maybe never. Who knows?

That’s the thing about grief that I can say—you never really know how it’s going to unfold for someone, and no two people are the same. And there’s really no rushing it.

So, instead, I'm going to continue with my plans to launch an audiobook and special edition hardcover for Finding Heaven through Kickstarter. This is the book I wrote as I grieved my loss, and it's also the first full-length book I published—the one that truly launched me into a career as a fiction author. Ten years after I began it (eight after releasing it), this book is still touching lives. And I'm very grateful.

I'm still in the early stages of planning the Kickstarter, but I'm working on figuring out the design for the special edition hardcover. Soon, I'll be "getting my hands dirty", so to speak, in figuring out the Kickstarter platform and setting up my campaign.

When it's ready to go live, you'll definitely be the first to know! (Get more details about the audiobook and Kickstarter in this post.)

In other news…Books:

I’ve finally started drafting Every Rose that Blooms (Peace Country Romance Book 3), and when I’m feeling good about how the first few chapters are shaping up, I’ll start posting early access versions for Books and Tea League members to enjoy.

Music:

I’ve been working through some concerns I had that impacted my music release strategy, and this past weekend, I gained some clarity about how I want to proceed with producing and releasing more songs.

I’ve also been working on setting up my artist platform. (I’m now an official artist on Spotify. If you use that platform, please give me a follow on my Spotify Artist Profile—and my Spotify Author Profile. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel, which is where I'll be posting new tracks, music videos, and soon, audiobooks.)

And if this is the first you've heard that I’m publishing music, you can learn more and listen to some here. Or search your favourite streaming platform to find my latest tracks.

Here’s a video of one of my favourites that I’ve released so far:

That’s all for this week, friend. I’m all worn out from thinking about that post I didn’t write, so I’m going to go enjoy a walk and a cup of tea.

If you dropped by to read this, let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you, too. 💜

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring